If you're looking for a cheap laptop, you've probably seen that many of them have something
called EMMC storage. But that spec sheet typically doesn't do a good job of explaining exactly what
that is. So is it some extreme cost-cutting measure that you should avoid like the plague,
or cannot think for EMMC actually be a good idea? Well, EMMC actually stands for Embedded
Multimedia Card, which probably sounds like something you'd insert into a digital camera
back when that was popular. And it turns out that that's actually kind of true.
The original EMMC came out back in 1997 and was indeed common in standalone digital cameras.
EMMC was later improved upon and had copy protection added, with the result being the
more familiar SD card. But the original EMMC standard stuck around. The EMMC storage in that
laptop that you've been eyeballing is essentially an EMMC version that's soldered directly onto
the laptop's motherboard instead of being an actual card that you can eject. So it's kind of
like a little built-in SSD. But why do lower-end laptops use EMMC instead of just putting in an
actual SSD considering how cheap and common SSDs have become? Well, even though SSDs are now standard
in most laptops rather than the luxury they used to be, EMMC is still the cheaper option.
The NAND flash memory that actually stores the data inside EMMC doesn't have the same longevity
as what you'd find inside of a proper SSD. That is to say, it wears out faster due to simpler
firmware and lower quality hardware. EMMC also doesn't tend to give you as much storage capacity,
as many laptops that include it only have 32 or 64 gigabytes for you to work with,
which isn't a lot for Windows 11. But are the drawbacks of EMMC so severe that we recommend
staying away from it entirely? The thing to remember about EMMC is that even though it
isn't the same as a SATA or NVMe SSD, it's still solid-state storage that's going to give you many
of the same benefits. Because of its cost-effectiveness, laptop manufacturers have been able to replace
those painfully slow mechanical hard drives you used to find in budget models with EMMCs.
And make no mistake, although these low-end laptops still come with slimmed-down processors and
limited amounts of RAM, those spinning hard drives were THE biggest bottleneck in such systems just
a few years ago. So swapping those out with EMMC removes this bottleneck without breaking the bank.
From that perspective, EMMC storage is an absolute win. But EMMCs top out at around 400
megabytes per second of sequential read speeds, with some implementations being well below that,
meaning they'll be significantly slower for large file transfers than even a cheap SATA SSD.
But more importantly, random reads, which is a more relevant stat for day-to-day use,
will also be around half of what you get with an SSD, or even a bit lower.
However, here's the thing to remember. Unless you're really trying to put a cheap system
through its paces, it shouldn't end up mattering too much. Laptops with EMMC are meant for more,
you know, watching YouTube, typing reports, wasting time on social media, those kinds of
use cases that won't tax the PC all that much. Trying to do anything heavy like gaming, streaming,
or content creation will probably push the system's other components well beyond their limits as well.
So for a cheap laptop, EMMC makes a lot of sense, as you wouldn't be buying it for demanding
applications anyway, nor would you be hitting it so hard that it would quickly wear out.
But Anthony, what about the base model Steam Deck? That thing is meant for gaming, and it has EMMC.
Well, EMMC is mostly going to slow down your load times in those games on the Steam Deck,
but shouldn't affect actual game performance too much once you get in.
Sometimes just having a bit more patience can save you a significant amount of money.
I can't even tell you how much money I've wasted on express food delivery just so I can
get my chicken poppers before halftime ends. Well, I don't watch sports, but still the same thing.
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